


For Better, For Worse

by EmptyOliveJar



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Brief mentions of Hubert being horny for other Black Eagles while in academy mode, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles Route, Flashbacks, Happy Ending, M/M, Marriage, POV Hubert von Vestra, Post-Game(s), ferdibert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21797473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmptyOliveJar/pseuds/EmptyOliveJar
Summary: Fódlan is united, Those Who Slither in the Dark are down to their last troops, Hubert is married to Ferdinand, and yet something is still missing. Raised to be a weapon at the Emperor' side, Hubert struggles to adapt to a quieter life where being a friend and husband takes up far more of his time than his duties to the Empire. As the wedding between Edelgard and their ex-professor dawns, Hubert takes the hand offered to him and steps out of the past.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth, Ferdinand von Aegir/Hubert von Vestra
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32
Collections: FE3H Holiday Gift Exchange





	For Better, For Worse

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tenkoh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tenkoh/gifts).



Hubert hadn’t slept through an entire night since he was ten years old. The same visions always descended once exhaustion finally overtook him. A flash of brown hair around leafy walls, wails and whimpers echoing from every direction, blood smeared before him in alarming quantities. As he grew older, those childhood nightmares of chasing and yet never finding gave way to his influx of duties, his body too hungry for what little respite it received to bother with dreams. There was no time for rest, peaceful or otherwise, when there was intelligence to gather, plots to concoct, and Lady Edelgard to check up upon.  
  
His affinity for coffee was born out of a desperation to remain alert and functioning, but the taste certainly didn’t spurn him. Quality coffee wasn’t acrid, but also wasn’t afraid to offer a sharp slap between its dark notes. This discovery left tea time and all its saccharine frivolities more of a waste of time than he’d previously judged it to be. Still, even if he didn’t personally partake unless circumstances demanded it, he learned how to brew tea over a decade earlier for Lady Edelgard.  
  
One thing about tea he had come to enjoy in more recent years was its smell, though. Maybe not freshly poured from the pot, but on Ferdinand’s hands after visiting the tea gardens or lingering on his breath after an afternoon cup.  
  
Tea wasn’t like coffee, it could serve a number of different purposes. Easing illnesses, a morning wake-up, aiding sleep. Coffee was just coffee, meant to complete a single task whether it be taken properly or sweetened to ruin.  
  
In the years they’d been intimate, Hubert had never seen Ferdinand struggle with sleep as he did. Perhaps the lance and horseback drills he performed kept him in a healthy schedule, the Prime Minister somehow always able to make time for training. Hubert lost a similar diligence since the war with the Church of Seiros ended, magic always having been a means to an end rather than pursued out of any degree of passion. Even now, Hubert rarely took the field, even to direct troops. Many of the former students recruited into the Black Eagle Squadron were more than capable of showing their gratitude and devotion to Edelgard by acting as her rat terriers, going down any dark and grubby hole they were pointed at to eliminate the vestiges of Those Who Slither in the Dark.  
  
Occasionally, he found himself alongside Ferdinand in the training grounds, idly shaping spells while Ferdinand honed his technique against practice mannequins or sparred against living opponents. His movements were measured, sharp, and any slip up was met with a repetition of the fumbled skill until he could perfectly execute it no less than ten times consecutively. As foolish as Hubert found Ferdinand to be for never wearing a helmet or even tying his hair back during combat, simulated or otherwise, he couldn’t deny the effect it had. The sunlight reflected off his armor, leaving his wavy tresses glowing like freshly polished copper as they were lit from above and below. Even with as unaffected as Hubert strove to be, it was impossible in those moments for his heart not to seize within his chest, not to recall with a covetous pride that he knew where the freckles congregated most on Ferdinand’s bare skin, how that hair looked spread over a pillow and caressed by moonlight.  
  
Those hours of training would always end with Ferdinand bathing, Hubert sometimes accompanying him, before the two retired to their mutual quarters, barring any further duties. The rings they both wore, each set with stones of yellow garnet and orange sapphire, came to rest on the vanity, ready to be slipped back on come morning. They’d been wedding gifts from Emperor Edelgard and with her own engagement to Byleth soon to be sealed, choosing a suitable present to give them in turn was just another task nagging at Hubert for completion. Ferdinand doubtless had far better taste in gifts and would carefully weigh how the price, origin, aesthetic, and use among a dozen other things would represent both the gifter and the giftee to the world. However, Ferdinand was just as occupied as Hubert was, if not more, and Hubert couldn’t find it within himself to delegate such an inanely important task.  
  
That night, Hubert was even more preoccupied than usual, Ferdinand too spent to initiate any intimacy beyond tucking himself up into bed, eyes closing once he was nestled against Hubert’s side. Their wedding bed always brought far more comfort to Ferdinand than Hubert could grasp. Sometimes, when Hubert was detained into the infant hours of the following day, he would return to the bedroom to find Ferdinand all ready asleep, Hubert’s pillow clutched in his arms. Hubert likely only encouraged such behavior by leaving small love notes on the bed whenever the fancy struck him or Ferdinand’s ready smile became strained. Hubert often found the same notes tucked away in his pocket the following day, a doting poem, albeit of questionable quality, penned on the opposite side of the paper.  
  
They’d both been virgins their first night together in that bed. Ferdinand had insisted upon following proper courting and engagement conduct befitting nobles. Hubert was in enough control of his desires to humor him, or so he thought until the day of their wedding.  
  
The ceremony was held upon in Von Vestra manor, Ferdinand having left his family home to his father, of whom Hubert doubted would ever speak with his son again, and sisters. Hubert hadn’t stepped foot inside his childhood home since he left for the academy, having left it in the staff’s care after his father’s removal. He hadn’t once considered going back there, content to let the staff pocket whatever gold the estate brought in alongside their wages and leave the boarded off rooms to overflow with dust.  
  
It was the only logical place for him and Ferdinand to be whenever they weren’t at the Imperial palace, such time lessening season by season. The manor house and its surrounding buildings were created to withstand the centuries unchangingly, thus was significantly more plain, nearly dour in its harsh lines and mute colors, to behold in comparison to the other noble estates. But it offered shelter from the weather, a safe place seemingly cut off from Fódlan’s strife, and Hubert didn’t doubt Ferdinand would have a time of redecorating to better suit his tastes. Against his better judgment, Hubert shared in the enthusiasm, at ease with sweeping away the last remnants of that part of his past and starting anew.  
  
Under Ferdinand’s guidance, it wasn’t long before the inside of the manor was revealed to eager wedding guests. The floors were buffed back into their original shine, furniture reupholstered, new wallpaper hung, and the heavy curtains thrown out and replaced with ones diaphanous enough to allow sunlight mingle inside the rooms. When Hubert first walked alongside Ferdinand from room to room, it became increasingly difficult to share in his enthusiasm. Here was the place of his formative years, lost in all but basic mapping of the rooms and their uses. Though Hubert had specifically requested Ferdinand erase any lingering sign of his father, particularly from the chambers they were to soon inhabit, it was less satisfying than he imagined it would be. His father was gone, as he well deserved, and yet another chapter in Hubert’s life had reached its conclusion.  
  
He was grateful to the wedding for forcing such thoughts from his head, unable to think of anything else as last minute adjustments had to be made when Lindhardt vanished only to be found in the library, blissfully asleep, or when it was discovered Hanneman and Manuela were to be seated next to one another. These were problems, petty as they were, that Hubert could readily solve before moving on to some other variety of busy work.  
  
The sun rose on their wedding day, everything that might have fallen to pieces now working on an almost disturbing level of perfection. Hubert’s ancestors hadn’t seen any necessity in creating a reception room, so the chapel was made do with once all its religious iconography was stripped away. Likewise, the vows they pledged mentioned nothing of the goddess, all the more heartfelt for her absence to Hubert. He and Ferdinand knew how they felt towards one another, Fódlan’s tradition of uniting noble houses to retain or amplify power drawing to a tedious close.  
  
Such was just one among Emperor Edelgard’s countless victories. After witnessing her destroy the church and unite Fódlan, compromise seemed a distant memory. Yet, of most things in the world, marriage was compromise. Ferdinand wanted a real wedding. Hubert didn’t. The end result was a small gathering of friends and family, Emperor Edelgard herself officiating their marriage. The only lavish expense was relegated to the food so the excess could be shared with the staff and villagers after the reception. Loathe as he was to follow through with his promise to Ferdinand and choke down the bite from the towering cake, he was taken aback by the flavors of dark chocolate and raspberry. From the sly look in Ferdinand’s eye as Hubert dug his fork in for a second bite, Hubert could have no doubt as to who chose the recipe.  
  
It was from there forward that Hubert began to see aspects of the wedding differently, the bare chapel becoming a liminal space rather than another formality. Their first dance, held outdoors as the sun began to bleed into the evening sky, was the chance to come together as they so adamantly refused to even contemplate during the ball at the Garreg Mach ball. Ferdinand’s body was warm against his, his counterpart, his lover, now his husband, sacrificing the impeccable dance form he was so prideful of to hold him as close as possible as Manuela and Dorothea’s song guided their steps. It still wasn’t enough of Ferdinand and if Hubert could have had his way, they’d have merged together as the day and night was overhead, complete in one another, if only for a brief while. That need was at once intoxicating and terrifying, the heady combination sending a fresh jolt through his body every time Ferdinand looked up at him, amber eyes outshining the sun, moon, even the flames of war that had sustained Hubert for so long.  
  
In the hours before they could finally slip away from the crowd, Hubert could only stare at the flowing plait Ferdinand’s hair had been arranged into, having forgone cutting it even after the time and opportunity returned after Hubert confessed how much he liked it that length. His wedding clothes were equally stunning, cut to hug his strong form in radiant white trimmed with the deep blue of his house. Hubert had to throw more of his focus than he was proud of into controlling his pallor and expression as his thoughts endlessly circled around how captivating Ferdinand would remain even after being divested of his finery.  
  
Hubert was trembling as he shut and locked the chamber door. It wasn’t that he lacked a basic grasp on the upcoming mechanics. Having been another young man among many, Hubert knew what it was like to be trapped within his body’s baser needs. When there were deadlines looming and he was in the privacy of his own room, it was often simpler to admit defeat and slip a hand down his trousers as opposed to letting his thoughts keep drifting away from his work. He refused to defile Lady Edelgard by fantasizing about her, regardless of how he felt towards her at the time.  
  
Instead, his thoughts would create other familiar phantoms. How Dorothea’s ample breasts would feel under his hands. The tattoos that lay hidden under Petra’s uniform and how he might feel their pattern under his tongue. Bernadetta’s tearful anxiety being gently coaxed into wantonness as she grew slick under his ministrations. Hands calloused from years of mercenary work wrapping around his cock as Byleth’s indecipherable gaze never strayed from his. As more years passed, other visions were shelved within his mental library. Lost within his current duties, they caused him little distress or contemplation over himself, merely holding the same next to non-zero probability of fruition as his earlier desires. The slip of Linhardt’s silken hair between his fingers as arched his back. Caspar’s unflagging energy being put to good use as he straddled him, taking Hubert deep and hard. When he was feeling particularly bloodthirsty, he and Jeritza would tear and claw at one another, blood and come falling onto the sheets alongside one another.  
  
The first time he pictured Ferdinand in such a lewd manner, it was simply to give his mouth something better to do than prattle on when the likeness of his visage and words interrupted Hubert. Once the imagined dalliance delivered Hubert to his desired end, he was left puzzled in a manner he was unaccustomed to as he freshened himself. Ferdinand was attractive, even if he was by far one of the most irksome figures in Hubert’s daily life. There was no reason why thinking of him in such a manner was particularly wrong or varied strongly from those towards the others of his house, and yet the feeling persisted. He was too mature to avoid Ferdinand afterward, as tempting as it was. They interacted so little out of classes and required missions that in due time, the feelings faded as enacting Lady Edelgard’s plans took up more and more of his thoughts and time.  
  
Hubert never expected Ferdinand to stand just as loyal to Emperor Edelgard as he did, even after being kept ignorant of her workings for so long. He didn’t believe their past animosity would fade as they were forced together, both jadedly aware their advice to her far superior when combined than separated. That first time Ferdinand asked him to tea, Hubert could only hide behind his usual answer to such invitations that he found the drink distasteful, too shocked to consider any other reply. Never in his life would he have imagined Ferdinand to politely rap at his door later that day, a tray in his hands with tea and coffee alike set for two. Hubert was less sure than he would have liked that he wouldn’t have done the same should the conversation had been reversed between them.  
  
As much as it would have made his younger self bristle and bare his teeth, Ferdinand had yet again become a subject of wary fascination, compliments rising up unbidden to sit on Hubert’s tongue where before he only saw a laughable collection of flaws. Ferdinand would never match Emperor Edelgard, never having a single chance of matching her in raw intelligence, drive, and strength of character, but that didn’t leave him without his own merits. He was tireless in his endeavors to understand others, improve himself, and find things in the world to flash his radiant smile at. Their selflessness stood opposite one another, Hubert devoting himself to Emperor Edelgard herself while Ferdinand acted for all she might look out upon.  
  
Ferdinand gently led him out of his ponderings and back to the present moment, taking Hubert’s cool hands in his warm ones. He tugged Hubert’s gloves off finger by finger before setting them aside and pressing kisses onto the back of each hand. With no boundaries left between them in that point of contact, it was all Hubert could do to remember there was a world outside their chamber door, beyond right now, beyond Ferdinand. The half-feral need to rip aside the rest of the useless finery that separated their bodies clashed against that to stretch the moment into an infinity.  
  
How far away even that time seemed now. Hubert still loved Ferdinand, he always would, but that alone wasn’t enough to banish those old concerns that so long kept him company. His nights weren’t anymore filled with sleep for knowing Emperor Edelgard was as safe or Ferdinand was close enough that he could feel his breath against his neck. At last, Hubert possessed ample opportunity to sleep and yet was as sleepless as ever. He could appreciate the inversion of it all, even if another breakdown into exhaustion was creeping ever closer.  
  
Unable to lay still any longer, Hubert slipped out from beneath the sheets, the thick mattress absorbing his movements without disturbing Ferdinand. In the familiar embrace of the shadows, he grabbed a dressing gown and tied it around himself before slipping into the hallway outside their chambers. He hadn’t bothered with any sort of shoes and the tiles were quick to impart their chill onto him. All the candles were extinguished, but stars and moonlight peaked out from behind the sheer curtains.  
  
Even though he never once doubted Emperor Edelgard’s resolve, part of him never earnestly pictured himself here, in his family home, wed, and dragged out into the open to serve Fódlan beside her. Such illumination was better suited to his husband. Ferdinand had the patience to settle matters through tedious diplomacy, matching even the cleverest among their potential foes word for word until a satisfactory result could be arrived at. There was greater success in that than Hubert originally believed, yet as treatises dragged out and looming threats refused to yield, it was difficult not to go straight to the careful files Hubert kept locked away from even Emperor Edelgard or if that failed, his cabinet of poisons. A few choice actions could accomplish what months of negotiations couldn’t and in a sliver of the time.  
  
Yet the point of Edelgard’s vision was to return the power usurped by the nobility to the people. The days of simply eliminating despots were all but over, now was the time to build a new system that didn’t center around crests or subterfuge, the two forces that so decidedly ended Emperor Edelgard’s childhood. Offering his opinions to Edelgard took up the majority of his duties now, although it was largely accomplished by letter, his time in the palace increasingly resembling social visits over meetings between advisors and Emperor. Even his birthright as Minister of the Imperial Household was little more than a title now. He could handpick Edelgard’s officers, her personal guard, personally organize every matter of security and daily functions within and around the palace, and yet it would never be the same as attending to her as he once did.  
  
Tomorrow, Edelgard and Byleth would themselves be wed. If anyone was just as capable, if not more so, of assuring Emperor Edelgard’s safety and prosperity, it was her soon to be wife. Hubert didn’t begrudge Byleth, long since grown past the opportunity for such vile feelings to fester, but that didn’t prevent grief from twisting his innards. Yet more details he need not concern himself with any longer, the empty space once allotted to them still determined to itch and ache.  
  
A part of Hubert had been meticulously hollowed out to allow for Emperor Edelgard for as long as he could remember. To suddenly have the life that filled that space plucked out bit by bit was akin to trying to pick and choose which organs he might go on without. Even Ferdinand, for all Hubert revered him, could only fill that space as a peg could a hole it hadn’t been created for, yet somehow managed to fit into. Hubert was a man now and to search for that lost piece of himself would be as impossible as turning back time.  
  
Taking in a deep breath and then letting it out, Hubert pushed aside the drapes and unlatched one of the windows closest to him, pushing open the heavy glass. He closed his eyes as the night air stuck its icy fingers inside the hallway, wringing a shiver out of him. Embracing the cold, Hubert pressed his forehead against the pane, searching for something, anything, that would cool his scorched mind.  
  
He heard Ferdinand approach before he spoke, stealth never having been a requirement for becoming Prime Minister.  
  
“This is the ninth time this moon you have done this.”  
  
“I wasn’t aware you were counting.” Hubert replied before turning back to the window. “Go back to bed, I’ll be there soon.”  
  
Rather than doing any such thing, Ferdinand came over to Hubert’s side, following his gaze out to the gardens Ferdinand insisted upon creating for his own amusement. The early winter killed off most of the late season blooms across old Adrestia, but having a picturesque wedding was the least of Edelgard and Byleth’s concerns when their marriage would pacify a number of Central Church holdouts.  
  
“Edelgard and I used to have a game we played within the palace hedge maze.” Hubert murmured, the air seeming to press against his throat like a clawed hand. “I always knew where she was, but she’d try to keep away from me for as long as she could. She’d squeal and laugh whenever she rounded a corner and saw me, never afraid of anything. It made me feel powerful to imagine I made her feel so safe, like she’d never get lost or hurt.”  
  
Ferdinand offered no words in reply, simply placing a gentle hand against the small of Hubert’s back and patiently waiting for him to gather his thoughts.  
  
“As much as I have assisted her over the years, I don’t doubt she would have made due without me. She certainly did in those years before we came to Garreg Mach.”  
  
Ferdinand’s voice was soft in his ear. “I do not think she would have been any happier if you were not here with us. I certainly would never have been.”  
  
“Kind as it is of you to say so, that doesn’t have much bearing on the present.”  
  
“Does it, though? Times may be changing, Hubert, but that does not mean you are worth any less.”  
  
Hubert huffed, looking at Ferdinand through his dark hair.  
  
“I envy you. You spent your whole life waiting to be Prime Minister, yet you seem to be handling the imminent dissolving of your position with far more grace than I can muster.”  
  
It would have come across as a rebuke to anyone who didn’t know Hubert well enough to search for a second layer of meaning behind his words, to push beyond the stony front. Even so, Ferdinand frowned, his tone tightening at its edges.  
  
“A Prime Minister serves the interests of the common people. If establishing a system where they might lead their lives without the aid or interference of nobility is what is best, then I can have no greater honor than to aid Emperor Edelgard in such a venture.”  
  
“But doesn’t it hurt to give up what you spent your whole life preparing for?” Hubert pressed, words stinging his own tongue.  
  
“Of course it does, Hubert!” Ferdinand exclaimed, brow pinched and blood rising to his face. “But what else is there to do? Maybe the future is uncertain, but there is nothing left for any of us in the past.”  
  
Hubert stood still for a long moment, the air rushing in through the window suddenly deafening. He closed it and then resecured the latch, his shoulders and chest falling inward as he met Ferdinand’s gaze once again, his previous words sour in his mouth.  
  
“I apologize, Ferdinand.” He murmured. “I spoke too harshly.”  
  
“All is forgiven.” Ferdinand responded, though the lightness in his tone failed to return. “I wish you shared these feelings with me rather than suffering them as you have. You are not the only one unsure among these changes, Hubert. We promised one another to meet the future together and that requires openness with one another.”  
  
“I understand, but I’m not used to sharing my burdens.”  
  
“Neither am I, but it is something we can learn together.”  
  
“Indeed.” Hubert responded. “Even knowing you also have these thoughts… is that why you keep insist on filling every hour of the day, to stave away that empty idleness?”  
  
“Absolutely, although I would certainly prefer it if you would be more willing to take some of those hours for yourself. That is, unless you prefer pacing around when there are millions of other things that might better occupy your time.”  
  
“Such as?”  
  
“Learning to be more selfish would be a wise place to start. Sleep a human amount, play some of those table games you’ve never opened, learn to ride a pegasus like you always yearned to-”  
  
“Make love to my husband?”  
  
A hint of a smile returned to Ferdinand’s face. “Should you find yourself with the time and desire to.”  
  
“I’ll be sure to remember that offer.”  
  
“Whatever makes you sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day and I doubt coffee will be served at the reception dinner.”  
  
“I’ll find a way to survive, if only for Emperor Edelgard.”  
  
“And me?”  
  
“Always.” Hubert said before tilting his head downward to catch Ferdinand’s lips in his.  
  
How could he begrudge a timeline where he was here with Ferdinand, where Emperor Edelgard awaited her own bliss with Byleth to be officiated? As cloying as the thought was, it curdled in an instant and Hubert tensed, eyes wrenching open as several words that would appall Ferdinand crossed through his mind.  
  
“What is it?”  
  
“The wedding gift. I was going to choose something tonight. How could I forget something like that? In the morning-”  
  
“Hubert,” Ferdinand whispered, cupping his face in his hands as if he were calming a spooked horse rather than another human. “I took care of it. You had enough to deal with without choosing a gift of all things.”  
  
A manic laugh escaped Hubert, wracking his haggard frame until he found himself slumping against the window, Ferdinand’s gentle strength keeping him upright. When the moment passed, Hubert struggled to get his feet back under him, the weight of his worries beginning to slip away and leave him to feel all the energy it leached away from him.  
  
“I think I’m ready to go to bed now.” Hubert muttered.  
  
Ferdinand stooped down, arms slipping under Hubert’s knees and around his back. “I certainly would hope so.”  
  
Hubert struggled to get his arms around Ferdinand’s neck as the latter rose without difficulty, walking back into the bedroom to gingerly deposit Hubert onto his side of the bed before going around to his own. After slipping off his dressing gown and simply dropping it onto the floor to deal with in the morning, Hubert pulled the sheets over the two of them before turning into Ferdinand’s heat.  
  
In the darkness, Hubert slid his hand over Ferdinand’s chest to rest atop his heart, the steady beat setting him at ease. That precious heart that shared his lifeblood, his hopes, his fears.  
  
“You are enough, Ferdinand. More than enough.”  
  
Ferdinand threw an arm and a leg over him to keep him close.  
  
“I love you, too.”  
  
Hubert’s worries over tomorrow and every day after that didn’t vanish in that instant, the notion far too fantastic for reality. At any point during the wedding, his services might be required and even once he was home again, there were a number of treatises, negotiations, and such ilk to be addressed. Now, though, he was beginning to trust they would wait for him, perhaps even accept fulfillment through a hand that wasn’t his own. The future held so much more than he could ever imagine as had been proven to him many times over, even if he was content for the moment to ask Ferdinand for the second dance once the newlywed couple shared the first.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays, tenkoh! I hope you enjoy your gift and have a wonderful season. Working with your prompts was fantastic, I love Ferdibert so much. :,)


End file.
